Zero Days. Barbara Egbert
adventure by uncommon and wonderful people. It is a peek into the world of long-distance hiking along the Pacific Crest Trail. It inspires, educates, and entertains. For families or individuals who would aspire to attempt such a hike, it provides a reality check and many insights.
Enjoy!
—Donna Saufley and her husband, Jeff, have lived in Agua Dulce since May 1996, and began hosting PCT hikers at their hostel, Hiker Heaven, in May 1997. Since then, Donna has been active in the Pacific Crest Trail Association in many ways, including chairing the 2006 Trail Fest and working on volunteer trail crews.
THE BLIGHS’ PCT ALBUM
Captain Bligh, Nellie Bly, and Scrambler began their journey at the Pacific Crest Trail’s southern border monument on April 8, 2004.
Looking east from the border monument along the wall between the United States and Mexico
“Thanks for the water,” Captain Bligh writes in the trail register at the water cache on Chihuahua Valley Road, 127 miles from the Mexico border.
Scrambler surveys the southern California desert in mid-April.
Nellie Bly and Captain Bligh at the water fountain at the mouth of southern California’s Snow Canyon; Fuller Ridge is in the background.
Whitewater Canyon with Fuller Ridge in the background
Trail angels Donna and Jeff Saufley at Hiker Heaven in Agua Dulce
Scrambler makes friends with a skeleton at the Hikers Oasis water cache, maintained by trail angels Joe and Terrie Anderson, north of Agua Dulce.
Afternoon thunderstorms move into Scrambler’s so-called “Dragon Mountains” in the southern Sierra Nevada near Mt. Whitney in late June.
Scrambler and Captain Bligh perch high on a pile of rocks near Kennedy Meadows in late May, just before leaving the PCT for three weeks.
This marmot greeted Captain Bligh, Nellie Bly, and Scrambler on Forester Pass in late June.
Scrambler crosses a snowfield on the descent from 11,980-foot Glen Pass in the southern Sierra.
Scrambler pauses on Selden Pass in the southern Sierra in early July.
Nellie Bly and Scrambler above the southern Sierra’s Thousand Island Lake, with Banner Peak in background
The moon is visible in a cloudless, late-July sky as Scrambler and Nellie Bly pause on a hot day in the Sierra Nevada north of Highway 49.
An arrangement of pinecones marks the PCT halfway point, just north of State Route 36, near Chester in northern California, in early August.
Scrambler and Nellie Bly at Burney Falls State Park in northern California
Scrambler with trail friends Sherpa (on left) and Crow in mid-August near Mt. Shasta
After the third straight morning of waking up at 4:30 a.m., Scrambler grabs a last few seconds of shut-eye before leaving camp in far northern California.
Scrambler wears her poncho on a drizzly 21.5-mile day in late August, the day before reaching Oregon.
Nellie Bly and Captain Bligh sign the trail register at the Oregon state line.
Crater Lake and Wizard Island
Just north of Crater Lake, Scrambler poses with Scott Williamson as he heads south on his yo-yo of the PCT.
Scrambler and Nellie huddle in the tent during a miserable rainy day in early September at South Matthieu Lake in Oregon.
In order to avoid potentially dangerous crossings of Milk Creek and Russell Creek, Scrambler and Nellie Bly walk along a narrow road from Pamelia Lake to Highway 22 in Oregon.
Scrambler thumbs her nose at a school bus sign in Washington, celebrating the fact that she’s not in school in late September.
Scrambler with Mt. Rainier in the background, early October
Nellie Bly says goodbye to Scrambler at White Pass, where Scrambler and Captain Bligh continued on without her in early October.
Scrambler walks among the fall colors as clouds threaten a few miles north of Chinook Pass, near Mt. Rainier.
A glorious sunrise in central Washington swiftly gave way to steady rain, south of Snoqualmie Pass in early October.
At the trail register at Summit Inn at Snoqualmie Pass, there are